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Rainbow Squadron - Plasmacello's Swarm

Role: Ambush - Capping - Scouting | Difficulty: MODERATE

This unorthodox fleet revolves around the point defense plasmacello A Brush with Disaster and its 8 escort shuttles. Use the plasma-equipped ocello to strip enemy armor and draw fire while the escort flak/gun shuttles whittle down the enemy with massed 100mm cannon gunfire.

Your optimal engagement range is 6 to 7 km. As a burst-damange ambush fleet, utilize rock cover to hide your presence until the enemy is in this range, then quickly move out to unleash your stream of projectiles while covering yourself with radar jamming by the shuttles White and Black. However, beware of blind corners, railgun rounds, and the positioning of enemy beam and craft bomber assets, as this fleet itself is vulnerable to being counter-ambushed under 5 km and rail sniping over 8 km.

This fleet benefits from careful management of the ocello's heading and smart ammo type selection: flak/grape for crafts, HE/grape for small ships, AP for medium and large ships, and HE-HC once a target has been shredded with plasma.

To further cover against missiles and crafts, a full suite of hard kill options is included, with the escort shuttles themselves providing a wall of 20mm slugs and 50/100mm flak, while the ocello provides long-range accurate point defense fire.

The individual shuttles can be detached for capping and scouting to provide enhanced mission flexibility. Prioritize the 'S' suffix shuttles for this, as they are better better equipped for one-on-one fights against ANS light assets with their pavise PDT. Only do this if absolutely needed or if the plasmacello is taken out of the fight, as the it is very vulnerable without its escorts.

Good luck and have fun! Let me know in the comments if you have any suggestions.

Big thanks to Silverpickaxe_15, Good Nut, and the Nebulous community for giving me the inspiration and references for this build.

• Update v1.4: Updated the escort shuttles to have 3 Pavise PDTs and 3 Bastion PDTs (was 6 Bastion PDTs) and updated the fleet description accordingly.
  
• Update v1.3: Updated the Plasmacello to have even more plasma output.
  
• Update v1.2: Updated the Plasmacello to have more plasma output and two additional T20s for a minor cut in PD based on Good Nut's Leanboss build. Adjusted jammer grouping on the jammer shuttles.
  
• Update v1.1: Updated the Plasmacello internals to lean better into bow tanking and added more AMM/ACMs. Replaced the 7th gun shuttle by another jammer shuttle.
  
• v1.0: File uploaded.